57 usually worn by Muslim men when practicing their prayer originally written as
“topi biasa dipakai orang Islam waktu salat,” p. 525. In Stevens and Schmidgall- Tellings’, kopiah is defined as a “cap, headdress worn by Muslim men and as a
symbol of nationalism, an untasseled fez” p. 519. In Suryadi’s Central Park, the word kopiah refers to the hat worn by a
bishop; that hat physically looks like the headdress worn by Muslim men. Nevertheless, the word kopiah still belongs to the category of material culture;
since it still refers to national clothes, specifically a nationally acclaimed headdress. This fact marks kopiah as one of Indonesian national identities.
The findings of material culture terms are illustrated in Table 4.2 below.
Table 4.2. The Material Culture Category of Culture-Specific Terms
Terms Sub-category
Poems Examples
Kerupuk Food
Trem Berklenengan di Kota San
Fransisco Taufiq Ismail
Amerika mengeluarkan
bunyi
kerupuk kentang kering
Getek Transport
Melintasi Atlantik
Darmanto Yatman
Bagai geteknya Joko Tingkir
Kopiah Clothes
Central Park Linus Suryadi
Kopiahnya bertengger di atas kepala
3. Social Culture
The category of social culture refers to words that indicate particular work and leisure activity or product of cultures Newmark, 1988: 98. Based on
examples provided by Newmark, it can be concluded that music terms, music instruments, and music genre e.g., sithar and biwa—Indian traditional string
instruments, raga—Indian melodic mode, reggae—Jamaican music genre, p. 95
58 also belong to this category. Furthermore, it also includes terms which denote
leisure activity in “national games with their lexical sets” p. 99. In this research, nine terms that belong to the category of social culture were found. Those terms
were found in six poems, namely Taufiq Ismail’s Pantun Terang Bulan di Midwest, Darmanto Yatman’s Melintasi Atlantik, Darmanto Yatman’s Impresi
Honolulu, Frans Nadjira’s Sepasang Turis, Abdul Hadi’s Kidung Putih, and Abdul Hadi’s Landskap 1971 untuk Angela Davis.
a. “Pantun Terang Bulan di Midwest” Ismail’s Pantun Terang Bulan di
Midwest, p. 78 Pantun is a kind of traditional poetry known in Malay and traditional
Jakarta. The word pantun is found in the title of Ismail’s poem and it refers to the kind of poetry Ismail applies in this poem. In Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, the
word pantun is defined as “bentuk puisi Indonesia Melayu, tiap bait kuplet biasanya terdiri atas empat baris yang bersajak a-b-a-b, baris pertama dan
kedua biasanya untuk tumpuan sampiran dan baris ketiga dan keempat merupakan isi p. 728.” The definition implies that pantun is a form of
Indonesian poetry; each verse consists of four couplets with specific rhymes. The first 2 couplets are called “sampiran”—not the literal meaning; and the second 2
couplets are called “isi”—the content it addresses. Meanwhile, the word pantun is described as a kind of “quatrain, old poetry form consisting of verses of four lines
each” or “kinds of epigrammatic style” in Stevens and Schmidgall-Tellings’ A Comprehensive Indonesian-English Dictionary p. 708.
The example of pantun can be seen in the following illustration.
59
Jika ada sumur di ladang —a
Boleh kita menumpang mandi —b
sampiran—
not literal meaning
Jika ada waktu yang panjang —a
Boleh kita bertemu lagi —b
isi—
literal meaning
The first and the third line bear the same final sound ang, while the second and the fourth line bear the same i sound. That kind of poetry is what Ismail wants to
show in Pantun Terang Bulan di Midwest. Since it refers to a traditional work of art as leisure poetry, pantun, belongs to the category of social culture.
b. “dalam megatruh blues” Yatman’s Melintasi Atlantik, p. 130
Megatruh is one of macapat song—Javanese traditional songs with specific lines and rhymes. The constraint on macapat’s specific numbering of
syllables is called guru wilangan; while the constraint on macapat’s final sound of each line is called guru swara. According to Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia,
megatruh is defined as a form of macapat composition which is usually used to express disappointment or deep sadness; it has five lines gatra in which the first
line consists of 12 syllables finalized with n sound originally written as “bentuk
komposisi tembang macapat, biasanya dipakai untuk melukiskan perasaan kecewa atau kesedihan yang mendalam, mempunya bait lagu yang terdiri atas
lima baris, baris pertama mempunyai dua belas suku kata yang berakhir bunyi n 12n, kemudian berturut-turut 8i, 8i, dan 8a,” p. 641. The word megatruh does
not have equivalence in English indicated by the absence of it in Stevens and Schmidgall-Tellings’ A Comprehensive Indonesian-English Dictionary. From the
definition in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, it is apparent that megatruh is a cultural word which belongs to social culture as a music term.
